Identify
by Dark Ice Dragon
Summary: There are a few things Kain has to get used to.


**Summary** : There are a few things Kain has to get used to.

Post-Defiance.

If Kain did tackle one of these kind of puzzles and I forgot, oops.

Kain…thinks a lot, wow.

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 **Identify  
**

By Dark Ice Dragon

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Kain looked around, studying the blocks around him and then at the square holes in the walls. The puzzle was simple enough, if not for the fact that there was one block less than there were holes.

There was no flash of anger that made him want to lash out at finding his path blocked. Mild frustration, yes, but it was not at the level that he was accustomed to.

And that was what was disconcerting to him, far more distracting than trying to solve the puzzle. There was a calmness in him that he had never experienced before, that he hadn't known he _could_ have with such ease.

At the best of times it was something he achieved through trying to quash every other impulse that vied for his attention.

Kain sorely felt its lack and there were times he wondered if something had went wrong, if he had been stripped of his emotions. He still felt them, but they were far more muted than they once were.

Or was this what it meant to truly be free of corruption? Was this the state that he had meant to be born in?

Either way, he would keep an eye on it.

He set his thoughts aside, studying the puzzle again. The boxes had weathered the ravages of time, that much was clear, but not enough that one should have completely corroded away to dust.

A trick? Someone removing the piece so that the secrets contained within were kept hidden forever?

 _'Look around.'_

Kain paused, narrowing his eyes. He _knew_ that voice.

And he also knew he didn't hear it. Not with his ears. The voice had echoed far too much for that.

Kain drew the Reaver from where it hung off his back and held it out in front of him. Though it still glowed, power thrumming through it due to Raziel's sacrifice, the blade had been silent as it always had been, no matter how much Kain had...hoped that would not be the case.

That was another feeling that he had to get used to - he had only been able to identify it from his faint memories from millennia ago, when he had thought that he could return to being human again. And look at what _that_ had caused.

He hoped, hah, that it was merely his imagination and not that Raziel's purification was only temporary.

He shook his head, putting the Reaver back. Enough distractions - it was time to solve the puzzle. 

xOx

Kain glared at the room around him. He'd been able to slide the blocks into their proper places once he found the right side and where they were meant to face, but the final box didn't appear once all the other pieces were in place like he thought it might have.

If someone was trying _this_ hard to keep him out, that only made him want to access it more. He would _not_ be defeated by something this simple, not after everything that had happened for him to get here.

 _'Look_ up.' Followed by an irritated sigh.

It hadn't been his imagination. "Raziel?" Kain demanded.

There was no response, in his head or from the Reaver.

It did make him wonder... Was Raziel trapped in there, conscious but unable to do anything aside from watch? He snorted. Better to be trapped in there than with the false god.

Though that was what he'd thought when he'd cast Raziel into the abyss, before he'd found out what Raziel had faced for centuries.

If that were the case... He had no way of drawing Raziel out of the Reaver. Only Raziel had that ability, and oh what bitter irony that the one person who could help was the one who needed it.

But Raziel had given him some direction, and Kain tilted his head back, looking for the nooks and crannies that a box that size could be hidden.

Kain found such a crevice and started to climb. He could hear a murmuring at the back of his mind, a litany of sounds that weren't distinct enough to make out the words, but the voice was still recognisable as Raizel's.

Pulling himself up, Kain saw the last box wedged into the corner of the small room he had found himself in. He clamped his claws into the stone and started to haul it across the floor.

 _'It certainly took you long enough._ ' There was sullen offence tingeing those words.

"Forgive me for not moving at your preferred speed," Kain growled, moving to a different side so he could push the block instead.

 _'...You can hear me?'_

Kain pushed the block over the edge and heard the thud when it landed.

"Apparently I can," Kain said, humouring the voice, hope growing again in the space where his heart had been. "It's not as if you were trying to keep quiet."

The voice spluttered.

Hearing a familiar voice was one thing, but having that voice _respond_ to what he said was quite another.

"I must ask," he said, hopping off the ledge and floating down to the level below, "how are you able to know what I'm doing? The Reaver doesn't have eyes." Not ones that could be seen through.

Before he landed, he was already pulling the Reaver over to study again, and maybe the touch would keep Raziel there longer. The aura wreathed around the blade was stronger than before, winding partly up his arm. Intriguing.

Faint surprise that was not Kain's, followed by dawning realisation.

 _'I'm not dreaming?'_

" _No,_ Raziel, you are not," Kain said, wanting to lunge, to somehow _grab_ Raziel before he faded again. "And it would appear I am not either." Relief was another emotion he wasn't used to feeling, not with frequency.

 _'Well,'_ Raziel said, his tone light, ' _that finally explains why 'I' was doing so terribly when the solution was fairly obvious._ '

Kain snorted, crossing his arms.

 _'...Ah.'_ This time it was disquiet filling Kain's mind and he raised a browridge, waiting.

 _'It would appear that I'm not looking out from the Reaver's eyes, nor from any position close to the Reaver. I'm looking out from_ your _eyes, Kain.'_

Hearing that, Kain turned his hands over, checking for any changes. He knew far too well that Raziel transformed the bodies of those he possessed to his preferred form.

 _'Hm? You don't think blue suits you?'_

"Being in the Reaver has changed you, Raziel," Kain said, not rising to the comment - to both of their surprise.

 _'I could say the same to you. Are you always like this, now that you are healed?'_ Kain could feel Raziel's hesitation, double-checking his own reactions now that Kain had pointed them out.

"It would seem so," Kain said, replacing the Reaver. He would need both hands to move the block to its correct spot and it seemed unlikely Raziel would be able to help in that regard.

Once they had finished with this damned puzzle, _then_ they could figure out the full extent of the changes and what that meant.


End file.
